The base's hallways were carved through the inside of the volcano itself, the ceiling about twenty feet above their heads, supported by a network of steel framework. The smaller rooms were made from a strange metal that not even Orkimedes could identify.
Lord Grievous led the way through the base, conversing intently with Ghazghkull about the requests he had made a few weeks earlier, while Ghazghkull's retinue of trusted followers admired the base's design, but kept alert for signs of an ambush.
"Did you destroy the fleet at Sangheil?" Grievous asked in a quiet tone.
"Um, yes and no," Ghazghkull replied carefully.
"Excuse me?" Grievous said in a polite, yet deadly sounding voice, "What do you mean by that?"
"We raided the Human homeworld, to try to capture some of the ships in the fleet that was stationed there," Ghazghkull reported, "We were doing fine until a huge fleet led by the UWSC's newest ship, the Pillar of Autumn II. We had the Destroyer Nuke, the one that Orkimedes built to destroy the fleet at Sangheil, launched at that fleet. It wiped out the majority of the the fleet, which was about five hundred ships. We also took out one entire battle cluster in the planet's orbital platform defense grid. We suffered the loss of one Kill Kroozer, but it was feeble compared to the losses the UWSC suffered."
"I'm not surprised," Grievous chuckled, "I was counting on you to raid Earth, because I knew you don't like being given orders."
Gahzghkull relaxed a bit. He had thought he was in trouble for not using the Destroyer Nuke on the fleet at Sangheil.
"Tell me Ghazghkull," Grievous asked, "Have you ever heard of a race called the Forerunner?"
Ghazghkull thought for a minute, then spoke.
"Never heard of them," he shrugged, "And I've lived for five hundred years! You ever heard of the Forerunner, Orkimedes?"
"Up til now, I've never heard of the Forerunner," Orkimedes answered.
"What would you honestly think if I told you that the Forerunner were an ancient race that lived six billion years ago and were had done technological advancement greater than any species that exists today," Grievous asked.
"I'd tell you to give that brain inside that tin can you call a head some air," Ghazghkull sneered, "If they were so advanced, why are they extinct now?"
"What if told you that they had died due to their own creation?" Grievous wheezed.
"I would believe you," Orkimedes interrupted, "Great beings usually get their own species destroyed by their foolish desire to push the limits of science."
"What he said," Ghazghkull answered.
At that moment, the group walked into the briefing room. The briefing room had been created by carving out the volcano's old lava chamber. the floor itself was made of pure hardened lava, unlike the walls and ceiling, which were made of three meters of steel.
A circular table hovered in the middle of the room. It was made of steel, but didn't have any legs Ghazghkull could see, but he guessed that it was supported by an antigrav pod of some sort. Twelve chairs were positioned around the table, and six of them were already occupied.
Four of the beings sat at one side of the table, one unoccupied chair dividing two of the beings from the other two. The other two beings were seated on the opposite side of the table, a chair separating them, paralell to the one on the other side of the table. Grievous sat down in the empty chair, and motioned for Ghazghkull to sit in the chair across from the one He had sat in.
The the other two beings were the Great Despot of Dregruk, who sat in the chair on the right of the one that Ghazghkull had been offered to sit in, and Urgok the Unstoppable on the left of the chair.
No one alive knew that the Great Despot's real name was Gazgrim, except for Ghazghkull, and that was because he had his closest followers assassinated. He was thirteen feet tall wore a dark gray suit of Mega Armour, the Ork verison of MJOLNIR armor, except it didn't cover the Orks' head. His he had his Grotz paint a fist, identifying him a Warboss, and below it was the symbol of the Waagh, a square that looked like a jaw filled with sharp teeth, which a Warboss only gets when he has gained enough power to claim a title that makes him feared throughout the Galaxy.
The had some Mekboy switch the suits' standard kombi-weapon or quad Shoota out for a second three-fingered Power Claw, then had two Kustom mega-blastas, or a small energy cannons, mounted on each arm of the Mega Armour which would explain the energy converter fastened to his back.
The Grotz, the sub-form of the Orks, were on the bottom of the Ork culture. Quite literally downtrodden (and kicked and beaten), the Grotz were usually on the wrong end of things, including the food chain! A usual job for a Grot was to clear minefields for the Orks by running through them, be living shields, or be used as stepping stones for the Orks so they could get through rugged terrain faster and could get to the fight faster.
Urgok looked extremely different from the Great Despot. He was fourteen feet tall and wore the traditional sleeveless Ork jumpsuit, but it was covered with blood stains form multiple species. Two curved plates of steel rested upon his shoulder called Heavy armour, the weaker Ork verison of body armour. A huge cleaver-like Choppa was strapped to his back that must have been three yards in length. His dark green arms were bulging with the slabs of muscle that he had gained over the years. A fang that looked one-and-a-half feet long jutted out from his lower lip. A scar ran from the top of where his neck stuck out horizontally from his body and joined the head, to the his bottom of his jaw.
Grotsnik, Snikrot, Zagstruk, and Orkimedes took a seat in the four remaining chairs. Grotsnik and Orkimedes sat down next to Urgok, while Zagstruk and Snikrot sat next to the Great Despot.
Ghazghkull examined the four beings seated by Grievous. One he immediately recognized as Durge. The second one was a droid with with a barrel-shaped head and torso. The other two looked humanoid, but Ghazghkull couldn't tell if they were human because of the suit of what guessed to be Mandalorian Battle armor. He assumed that they were related.
"To business," Grievous wheezed, then coughed, "I don't care if you haven't cut off New Unggo's supply lines, Ghazghkull, because I have a new agenda for you, the Great Despot, and Urgok."
"Whats the job?" Urgok inquired in his usual harsh tone.
"The Armageddon Sector," Grievous replied and emitted a series of small coughs.
"If your intending to attack Armageddon," Ghazghkull stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "Forget it. I tried to take dat planet a year ago and lost my old Space hulk because of it, but I did a great deal of damage to the orbital defense grid."
"Good," Grievous said, "Except this time you will be attacking with the full power of the Droid Army behind you. My Generals and I will accompany you on your ship."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Ghazghkull said as he stood up, "Lets go!"

"But Admiral Hood, you can't send the Pillar of Autumn II to Armageddon," Miranda Keyes protested inside the officer's lounge onboard the Cairo.
The lounge's bar was stocked with various liquors, had a huge birch table. The white-colored walls, ceiling, and floor were a meter thick of Titanium A, making it impossible to eavesdrop on the conversation without some advanced equipment.
"Listen Miranda," Hood said calmly, "If we lose Armageddon, we lose one of the four remaining old UNSC colonies, which is still recovering the attempted invasion the Orks did last year."
"With all due repect, sir," Keyes said, "Armageddon is a hell compared to the other three colonies left. It only has three small continents near the prime meridian and the equator."
"The planet's second largest and northernmost continent, the Fire Wastes," Keyes continued, "Is constantly fried by the system's star, and is uninhabitable. Same situation with the planet's largest and southernmost continent, the Deadlands, which is always freezing and covered insnow and ice. The planet's only continent that is habitable is divided into two different sections, Armageddon Prime and Armageddon Secundus, by a thick stretch of equatorial jungles that contains thousands of deadly species of plants and animals in it. It has the water areas called the Boiling Sea and the Tempest Ocean. The civilians and Armageddon's own military have to reside in large fortified cities that the citizens nicknamed 'hive cities' and are few and far apart because of the deadly lifeforms that live in the deserts outside the cities and the jungle. I see no reason why we even settled that planet in the first place."
"Which is exactly why we need a naval hero such as yourself defending it," Hood replied, "Civilian morale has always been low on that planet, and ever since the first Armageddon War against the rebels, human morale has been on a slow and steady drop. If the experts are correct, we could lose the planet by succession from the UWSC in three years, even with the morale boost from the end of the Holy War, the boost was negated by the second Armageddon War against the Orks last year. The defeat of the Orks boosted morale somewhat, but not enough to stop the steady decline of businesses that pulled their investments away from Armageddon because of it being vunerable. The politicians feel-"
"I don't GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE POLITICIANS WANT!?! " Keyes yelled in rage, then stopped. Outbursts like that one were not her style.
"Forgive me sir," Keyes apologized.
"This visit is over," Hood said in a end-of-discussion tone, "You will return to your ship, summon the newly refitted frigate Gettysburg, and the new heavy cruiser New Denver and set course for Armageddon. Once you have arrived at Armageddon, you will deploy your marines, Holy Soldiers, and ODSTs, in these cities. They are as follows: Hades, Tartarus, Death Mire, Helsreach, Acheron, Infernus, Volcanus, and Tempestora. Understood, Admiral Keyes?"
"Yes, sir," Keyes said in defeat after a few minutes of silence.
She turned on her heel and left the lounge to prepare the Pillar of Autumn II ready for departure.